How to Play Masterclass 1

Yearning for Janácek? Bereft without Beethoven? Graham Fitch becomes your very own piano teacher with technical treats for three of this issue’s scores

In his latest masterclass, Graham Fitch giftwraps some technical advice on Janáček, Beethoven and Glinka

In this article, I have chosen three pieces that we are featuring in the scores, coming up with some ideas that I hope will help focus and guide you as you practise them. Let’s dive straight in.

Janácˇek The Barn Owl Has Not Flown Away! (p50)

This is the tenth and final piece from Book 1 of On an Overgrown Path by Leoš Janáček (1854-1928), a set of autobiographical pieces that recalls the rural Moravia of Janáček’s youth, and his sorrow over the death of his daughter. In this piece we find both nostalgia and grief. There are two main ideas that alternate with each other – the opening cry and ominous call of the owl, and a chorale-like section that feels very calm at its first appearance, but which becomes agitated and anguished at its last.

If the opening motive feels awkward, you might want to redistribute between the hands:

Play the tremolo from bar 2 very softly, almost indistinctly, inside the keys right at the sounding point. To ensure rhythmical control, practise the LH with slight accents in 3s and then in 6s, and then remove the accents once they have done their job. Find a balance between the LH tremolo and the owl’s cry in the RH, which needs a special colour. The repeated C#s are best played with the same finger (3), again inside the key.

Careful control of tone is required in the chorale in the B section, with the chords skilfully balanced between the hands. It will be beneficial to practise the upper RH line by itself (with the pedal), focusing on the projection and shaping of the main melody. The tenor often contributes a parallel line that needs to be brought out somewhat, but other notes that fill in the harmony need to be put into the background. Miming practice can also be very helpful here: play the upper line and touch the lower notes without allowing them to sound. Difficult? Yes, to start with! It gets easier as you work at it, and you’ll be very happy with your increased ability to voice the chords masterfully.

Glinka Mazurka in C minor (p36)

This mazurka in the Russian Romantic style requires considerable rhythmic flexibility, so beware of relying on the metronome. A little bit on occasion is fine, but excessive metronome use will iron out all the subtleties of timing and make the playing feel straightjacketed.

Spend time with the LH alone; we first need to feel very comfortable with the jumps before adding the RH. Organise a comfortable fingering and write it in the score, so you can be sure you are always using the same fingering in all the various practice stages. Let’s work in units of four bars. A very good first step is to play the bass notes with the LH, and let the RH take the chords. The reason this works is because the technical problem of the jumps disappears, meaning we create the right sound relatively easily. Next, we need to work on the LH systematically to organise the position shifts. To get a strong tactile sense of what is happening in the LH, play the bass note (first beat) followed by the bottom note of the chord (on the second and third beats). Repeat until comfortable. Go back, and this time play the bass followed by the upper note of the chord (where we find three-note chords, we follow the same principle). If you want to add value to this process, shadow the notes we are not playing (covering but not sounding them).

A practice technique for jumps I call ‘selective landing’ involves jumping early to a pre-selected note (or pair of notes) of the chord and then touching in the remainder of the chord afterwards. If you exhaust all combinations of single and pairs of

notes you will find it fits like a glove when you play as written. Here’s how it works from bar 5:

When putting hands together, we can eliminate the problem of the jumps by starting with the RH complete and adding just the first beats in the LH (the bass notes). This idea also works the other way around: omit the basses and play the LH chords on the second and third beats along with the RH. You may find you don’t need this stage, but it’s a helpful one to remember when moving from separate-hand practice to hands together. (See my video demonstration for how this works.)

Beethoven Bagatelle Op 33 No 4 (p46)

Beethoven wrote 30 short piano works at various stages in his life, calling them ‘trifles’ (bagatelles). This glowing example in A major features an A section in two halves in the style of a string quartet, followed by a contrasting B section that feels like an accompaniment to a non-existent melody. An embellished A section then returns with a generous coda to round the piece off.

Because there are four clear voices in the opening A section, it is a good plan to go through each line individually with attention to phrase shaping (singing really helps here), and then in combinations of two and then three voices. Try the middle two voices without the top and bass, listening to how they interact, then play only the outer voices. The viola line in bar 9 imitates the first violin from the previous bar, so bring this out somewhat; it’s also well worth playing the cello theme (bar 39, etc.) after having played the first violin theme from the opening. Alternate until your LH with your RH until they both feel and sound equally good. As always, make sure you use the fingering you’ve settled on, rather than an arbitrary fingering that might feel easier when deconstructing the lines.

The central section relies on an expressive, well-shaped LH. Use a good fingering to achieve the required legato touch (with finger substitutions as necessary), allowing the music to breathe at the ends of the phrases. To get the best sense of the harmonic progression, play the RH in blocks together with the LH, chorale-style. It’s natural to use the pedal when you practise like this so you create an overall legato; however, avoid the pedal when playing the passage as written, as it would interfere with the articulation in the RH.

The various practice stages I have outlined may well need to be repeated regularly for a few days to yield optimal results (think of a course of medication – we probably won’t notice any improvement after the first pill, it’s the cumulative effect that does the job). Aim for a balance between practising (investing) and playing through (spending) to keep your playing in tip-top condition. ■

For more on chord practice, see Graham’s article on the Online Academy (www.bit.ly/GrahamChords). For some specific tips for learning new pieces using deconstruction techniques, follow this link (www.bit.ly/SkeletonPractice).